UNC baseball wins series but falls short of milestone

North Carolina head coach Mike Fox came into Sunday’s game against N.C. State unaware of what was at stake.

UNC baseball had won 11 consecutive games, and with the wins Friday and Saturday over the Wolfpack, the Tar Heels had clinched their sixth straight conference series. North Carolina was rolling offensively, averaging 7.2 runs per game on the season and totaling 82 runs over the past six contests.

Those numbers didn’t make Sunday’s game a potential milestone, though. Rather, Fox was competing for his third consecutive sweep of an ACC opponent — something he hadn’t done since the last time the Tar Heels made it to the College World Series in 2013.

“It’s hard to sweep in this league,” Fox said.

“You have to be careful about the last two weekends. I’m like, ‘Man, we could do something today that I don’t think I ever have been a part of.’”

“That’s like unheard of in this league.”

But despite the recent offensive tear, the Tar Heels fell Sunday to N.C. State, 4-2, in their lowest-scoring affair since a loss to Miami three weeks ago.

North Carolina’s underwhelming performance Sunday could largely be attributed to N.C. State relief pitcher Johnny Piedmonte’s career showing. The 6-foot-8 redshirt senior only allowed four hits and struck out four in the five innings he manned the mound.

“Me personally, I just wasn’t seeing the ball well out of Piedmonte’s hand,” said junior Brian Miller, who accumulated two hits and three RBIs over the course of the weekend series.

“That’s a credit to him, but we still hit the ball hard. It just didn’t go our way today.”

The slow day in the batter’s box wasn’t due to a dearth of chances, however. The Tar Heels (29-7, 14-4 ACC) loaded the bases in both the fifth and sixth inning, but the Wolfpack (20-17, 8-10 ACC) held them to just two runs.

“We got down early every game,” Miller said. “Today, we were confident that we were going to come back at some point, and it just never really came together.”

Against Boston College earlier this month, the team was getting on base and scoring runs early — as it has been all season.

For the majority of this weekend’s series, though, the offense came later. Whatever the point in the game, there’s no question that one batter’s performance at the plate significantly influences the rest of the lineup.

“I feel like hitting has been contagious for this team all year,” said sophomore Kyle Datres, who amassed a double, a home run and two RBIs this weekend.

“If one guy picks it up, another guy does and it keeps on rolling throughout the lineup.”

On Sunday, uncharacteristically, the Tar Heels couldn’t string together enough hits to achieve a feat for the first time in four years.

But if they keep with the general trend, it won’t matter.

@alexzietlow05

sports@dailytarheel.com